The site also contains scans of my modest collection of "Rock of Ages" postcards for those interested in such matters.
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This site does not aim to reproduce all of Toplady's writings, his "works" are after all readily available. I do however aim to put Toplady's work in its proper context and in particular to make available certain out of copyright resources which will enable anyone to understand Toplady and his times. It has in the past been difficult to even obtain a bibliography of Toplady's writings, hopefully such a task is now much easier.
Toplady has had an awful press, one reason is that history has dictated that anyone who John Wesley did not like must be at fault. Toplady could be caustic and sarcastic at times but such faults surfaced in the face of a continual misrepresentation of both himself, his Church and the Gospel. He is actually a very sympathetic figure who fought against the decline of the national church at great cost to himself and against great odds, resting in his unshakeable confidence in the goodness and sovereignty of God in whom he put his trust.
In the present day with the Church having (in the main) retreated into a man centered social ghetto with arminianism being the only acceptable doctrine it is beneficial to study Toplady and to meditate at the unchanging God he worshipped. With God's unchanging Gospel, our own unchanging sin and our need for redemption. A redemption that the natural man continues to find offensive, a redemption that natural man insists must be a result of our own choice and action.
This site contains various documents that require the free Acrobat reader (version six or greater) to access, if you do not have this software it can be downloaded here. All such files on this site are searchable. Where a book cover or image can be seen a high definition pdf version can be accessed by clicking the image.
Of especial interest are the texts of Thomas Wrights excellent biography of Toplady, the May 1899 Toplady edition of the Gospel magazine and a work examining the links between "Rock of Ages" and Burrington Combe. The full searchable texts of these works can be found on this site.
I hope to update and correct this site as time permits and would be happy to receive any suggestions, corrections or contributions.